Wednesday, September 6, 2017

I
remember one time as a kid I walked into a store with my mom and saw some
mineral waters. For some reason, I tried to convince my mom to buy them. She
tried to tell me I wouldn’t like it, but after enough “convincing,” she finally
got me one. I thought it was horrible and promised never to have it again.

Hope,
the woman who has watched Audrey in our home over the past year, likes mineral
water. As a kind gesture, I started buying it to have around the house for her.
One day, even though I thought it would never happen, I tried mineral water
again for the first time since my childhood. This time I liked it.

I
used to be a big believer that regular soda was okay but diet soda was bad;
that diet soda created the desire in your body to drink more & more of it, where
normal soda allowed you to stop. I was such a believer that I might even argue
with you about it. The thought that there would ever come a day when I would replace
soda didn’t even enter my mind. Over the last several years, there has been a
growing trend to drink less soda and use mineral water as an alternative. Now
that I’ve tried mineral water again, I’m finding this is slowly happening to me.
I am drinking less and less soda and replacing it with mineral water, and I
like it.

In
the lesson for this week, I noticed something “different” for the first time.
It was right before the great commission—that point in time when Jesus sends
His people out to make disciples of all nations and baptize them. The Bible
says, “they worshiped him, but some doubted.” (Matthew 28:17) It was the great
commission! The resurrected Jesus was right there with them! There was every
reason to believe… but some doubted. I know this culture can be frustrating. As
a pastor I feel it every day. It takes time to build the relationships that
help doubters to believe. Last weekend we celebrated the gift of the Holy
Spirit. We know He will prepare us for those moments, with the right words to
speak, to help those who don’t understand what we believe and why, especially
regarding the Trinity.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

A
few nights ago we dove into the conversation about bad words with the kids. It
all started with the word “sucks.” Don’t worry; we approached it at an 8-year-old
level. I am a professional at these types of talks. While many of my other Seminary
classmates were writing sermons every week or making visits to people who had
been in faith for a long time, I was dealing with high school and middle school
students and their unchurched questions. Many of those conversations are in
locked boxes in my mind. Even the most open and honest conversations won’t
unlock them. From them I learned to practice what I preach, never be shocked,
and always be ready to give an answer for my faith. Yes, I even have an answer about
bad words. What? You don’t think the devil is just as active in all the
language that is out there. A word said in the wrong company can affect a
person’s view of us. Oh trust me, this is a bigger deal than you can imagine.

Anyway,
Mindy got stuck in this “bad word” conversation and called me to her rescue. I
shared how we often don’t understand these words when we hear them, and if that
is the case, we shouldn’t say them before we ask mom and dad what they really
mean. This pulls us away from the whole “my friends use it” argument, and gives
the instruction back to us. We explained many of these words try to destroy something
God has made beautiful, which was followed by the question, “Why?” The answer,
well, the devil is active trying to distort any of God’s beautiful gifts of
life. Then I asked, “Did you ever say any of these words before you knew what
they meant?”

My
photo memory flipped back to my own experience on a hot, miserable Blue Springs
summer day. I was probably around Jacob’s age. My mom had just put the air
conditioning units in the house, but it was still super hot. Luke and I wanted
bunk beds instead of individual beds, so my mom was busy changing all of that
around for us. As we were standing there watching her, I was finding words that
rhymed with the sounds I heard. The word “stuck” came to my mind as I listened
to the metal hit the wood. I spiraled through a bunch of beginning sounds as
you do when finding rhyming words, but of course the only one I said out loud
was… well enough said. I had no clue what the word meant. After sharing this
story with my kids, Jacob said, “I know what word you said” and he asked if
grandma was mad. I said, “Of course.” He tried to grasp why she would be mad if
I didn’t know what it meant. This is why we don’t say something until we know
what it means.

Society,
the world, and the devil are constantly stealing words and creating derogatory meanings
for them and other nonsense words. We have to deal with X-mas and the dreaded “higher
power” conversations. (I am not even sure why higher power is safer than God, other
than it allows people not to have to say that they believe in God.) We could
all get on soapboxes and yell at society, the world, or the devil for doing
this. Yet we know that the victory is really won by Jesus. In the meantime, we have
to deal with the devil’s acts, and the way we do that is with a Ghost. You
heard me right—a Ghost. And the devil has even tried to distort that!

This
weekend is exciting as we worship as one body in one service. This hasn’t
happened in a long time, and what better timing than a weekend where we’ll talk
about the Holy Ghost, aka the Holy Spirit. It was in a room packed full of
Jesus’ disciples when the promise of a helper was fulfilled. Maybe the most
shocking part was that this helper, this Ghost or Spirit, was invisible! That
was a powerful moment! It was undeniable that a helper was there, based on what
they saw, and regardless of what they didn’t see. But trust me, they didn’t
understand it all. What words or circumstances has the world tried to steal,
making it so we can’t explain, or even try and understand it? To understand
Him? This morning we break the silence on one of the most powerful, but
unexplainable, parts of our journey with Jesus.

I am
not sure how any pastor takes off on Mondays. My Mondays get things rolling for
the following weekend. I begin to study the next Sunday’s Bible readings and
write the blog. But, there are many Mondays where those things get put off,
depending on what came up over the weekend. It could be a hospital visit, a
phone call, or just an unexpected drop in. Although interruptions to the routine
may throw some people off, it honestly doesn’t frustrate me. Instead it reminds
me that I’m in the world, and that Jesus allows me to speak to those having bad
Mondays.

The
world hates Mondays and makes many jokes about them. Why do they hate Mondays? I
think it’s because they don’t see the problem. The problem is that the world is
its own problem. It’s all the sinful ways of the world that make Monday’s bad.
It could be the weekend behavior, or just habitual abuse, that brings shocking
things on Monday morning.

As
Christians, we know that whatever we were hiding from in the world over the weekend
comes back on Monday. We still face the realities of our jobs, school, and
weekly routines. We are bombarded with unexpected painful realities of this
sinful world. Jesus knew this. He also knew that the world would never see
themselves as their own worst enemy, so He sent you and me to speak
understanding to those who are confused about how sin causes so much pain in
this world. Jesus also wanted to guard us and protect us. He does that with His
Word and sacraments. We get that great blessing in worship together, with other
people who know there will be hard moments. But, thankfully, we have the
forgiveness and love of our Savior.

Jacob
was asking about the bills the other day and how we paid for them. After his
typical rifling of questions, he came to the conclusion that being an adult is
hard. At this point I got to say something I wish was said to me more often as
a kid, “Enjoy being a kid.” I was always too anxious to grow up. Maybe I am a
better adult than I was a kid, or I just feel more comfortable in an adult role.
Regardless, I want my kids to enjoy their home and the blessing of parents that
provide and care for them. Abby will tell us that she is never leaving home.
She is not going to get married or leave our house. I know she is only 5, but
there is a great sense of joy knowing my kids feel peace and security at home.

I
can’t imagine what it would have been like if my parents just told me one day
that in a little while they would be leaving—for good. What do you do when the
ones who have taken care of you tell you that they are leaving? The disciples were put in this position. When
Jesus met the disciples they were teenagers, and they left their families to be
with Him.Now Jesus was telling them He
is going to leave, but not to worry because He’ll send a helper. I have never been
orphaned, so I can’t imagine how this felt, but they had to be scared. And
since they had no clue what the Holy Spirit was going to be like, it had to be
even scarier. This weekend we will dive into these words to see where the
disciples were at and how they responded. We’ll also review the good news that
Jesus did not leave us as orphans, but adopted us in spite of our sinful
behaviors. His constant grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit are with us every
day, and it is an awesome blessing!

As a young adult, I always went for the most economical haircut.
The issue I had, however, was that the workers would always ask me how I wanted
it cut, and I would try to relay whatever I thought was best, which meant the same
way I had done it for the last 10 years. At some point my mom told me to just
find someone professional to cut my hair. The first time I went to a
professional for a haircut, he basically just started cutting. I gave him
little instruction, and in turn, he showed me how he thought my hair should be
cut. I still go to this guy today. Don’t get me wrong, occasionally I will tell
him what annoys me about my hair and he does his best to answer my concern. I
trust him because he has been cutting hair for 40 years, so now I don’t stress
about it anymore.

A similar thing can happen with funeral or wedding planning.
I sit down with the couple or family and ask what hymns or Bible verses they
would like to use. Sometimes they have specifics, but many times they are not
really sure what to pick or where to start looking for options. When that happens,
I try to provide comfort saying,“Don’t
worry. I just wanted to know if you wanted something specific. If not, I will take
care of it.” At this point they usually feel a sense of relief that they don’t
need to display their Biblical knowledge in front of me, or lack of it. (Honestly,
you will sometimes find me googling verses based upon the theme just to see
what other verses may fit.)

Many times we want to be experts in everything, and we have
concerns when we’re not. For example, I have hair on my head, but I get uncomfortable
when I have no clue when trying to tell someone how to cut it. As a pastor, I
want to help people through critical times in their lives. Not knowing Bible verses
or hymns does not change my opinion of anyone. I love that Jesus allows me to
serve them.

The disciples had a great task in front of them—tell the
world about Jesus. I am sure there was pressure in their own minds to make sure
that they knew every detail. Thus, they probably had a hard time sorting out
the concepts that only God can understand and explain. For example, Jesus and
the Father being one is one of the toughest to understand. Only God can truly
understand a concept like this. The fact that Jesus is preparing enough rooms
for everyone who believes in Him is another. This weekend we take time to step back
and let Jesus be the expert in the matters we can’t understand. I pray it will
bring clarity and relief to you, not having to figure out everything, and also
encouragement to work together as the body of Christ. Jesus has surrounded us
with gifted experts in many matters, and the more we work together, the more we
see the uniqueness of God’s creation.

I remember a time as a
kid when we had to pack up the car quickly to head to one of my great-grandparents
funerals. In haste I remember putting my sister’s blanket in our shoe bag. We arrived
at the hotel late and went quickly to the room to crash. In the morning we
found out that our car had been broken into during the night. They took a
couple of our bags, my bag and our shoe bag. My bag had video games and my school
books in it, which was sad, but I was more impacted by the loss of the shoe bag
because it had my sister’s blanket in it. I felt responsible since I was the
one who put it in there. I didn’t like that feeling at all. It felt like
someone had come and wrecked my sense of the protection and security that I
felt when I was with my family. When we got back from the trip, we had to pay
the school for my stolen books. I felt ashamed, and almost confused, walking
the check into the office to pay for them. What had my family done to deserve those
books being stolen from us?

Protection and provision
are two tough topics, and certainly ones that plague our minds in different
situations. We can worry about how Jesus will provide for whatever need is
forthcoming. At times, we can feel unprotected, whether electronically or
physically. When we feel like this our minds race and it can be hard to find
peace. We look for our own sense of protection and provision based upon what
the world teaches, but Jesus teaches us to look to Him.

This week we take time
to look at a passage that was confusing to many listening to Jesus, John 10:1-10
– Jesus the Good Shepherd. The people may have understood what shepherds are
and the role they played, but making the connection to how that fit with them was
too hard, as it can be for us. Yet the message we hear is surprisingly simple—Jesus
came to bring life to the fullest, but the devil comes to steal, kill, and
destroy. Even though this is a simple message, it doesn’t change how hard it is
for our human minds to process in the midst of times when our protection and
provision are being attacked. This Sunday we’ll learn more about God’s
provision & protection.

This phrase always stands out as one of
those movies scenes where once you hit this point you can’t go back. It usually
has a negative connotation, and creates a fear of reaching that point. I think
it is a little different in life when we hit a point of no return; it is more
that we can never look back and see things the same way again.

Every spring for the past nine years, two
of my friends have come into town to attend a few things at the Seminary. It
began when the three of us started teaching a class to help seminarians process
what it means to receive a call. This year was the big finish. We taught our
last class, which made it our last time to have a few days to hang out
together. Our relationship has only grown over these last 8 years. Certainly when
we look back years from now, there will be no doubt how these yearly trips
impacted and grew that relationship. I don’t think any of us could see it
differently. On that last night we took time to ask what we would change or do
differently regarding our time at Seminary. After years of ministry, there are
some parts of Seminary we see totally differently now. We can never again
return to the students we once were, students with no view of ministry, and
have that same view of Seminary. We can only step back on the campus and
remember. We have hit that point of no return.

The road to Emmaus was where the disciples
were exposed to that point of no return. The words out of the disciples’ mouths
spoke of uncertainty of the resurrection, and wondering if and when the promise
had been fulfilled. But then, as they broke bread with Jesus, their eyes were
opened! They could never again return to that emotional state of wondering if
He really was the Savior. Never again. It was such a powerful moment! I think
there are times for all of us when Christ’s presence comes into our lives and we
can never go back to where we once were. Most of the time we are happy about
this, and it is hard to take our minds back to how we thought before. This
weekend we take time to reflect on the points of no return and what they mean
for us on our road.

Have
you ever had that moment where you saw someone you didn’t expect to see and it
was a good thing? Not the moments when we bump into someone who we have had
issues with and it is shocking and nerve racking. I’ve had those too. But I’m talking
about the time you bump into someone you have been thinking about, and you are so
thrilled for the unexpected surprise.

I
was at the zoo with my kids on the sacred church staff holiday called Easter
Monday. We had a regimented plan to deal with the rain, which was trying to
interrupt our trip. We had to see the bugs and butterflies, then the reptiles,
and finally the gorillas. I was standing, hood up, watching the gorillas with a
light sprinkle coming down when I bumped into someone.It was a local pastor who I had been meaning
to call to set up lunch. We chatted for a minute and made tentative plans. I
praised Jesus for the unexpected presence, which makes unexpected joyful
reunions.

There
are a million ways to tackle our Bible reading this weekend. Growing up I loved
this Sunday more than Easter. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Easter, but I loved even
more when the resurrection became a reality by the unexpected presence of
Christ. His disciples and a few others didn’t immediately recognize Jesus after
He had risen from the dead, but the minute they did, it was a joyful reunion.
This weekend we take time to understand a God who is omnipresent, which means
He can be everywhere, and He knows the times we ignore, or just miss, His presence
in our lives.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Sunday
night I put my kids to bed after the Easter egg hunt at church. They were
asking questions about the week ahead. I knew Palm Sunday was just the
beginning of a long journey and an important week. The sun wasn’t down yet and
there was still light coming in their room. I reflected back to the many
Easters I would fall asleep in my bed excited for the next day. Back then it
seemed as if the hours and days couldn’t move fast enough. Now I feel like time
moves so quickly. I begin my days asking the Lord to guide me through the day.
I pray that the Holy Spirit would give me the words I will need, and that I would
treasure every minute I have.

Jesus
had such a short timeline. Can you imagine 33 years of life or 3 years of
ministry?What if someone told me I only
had three years to teach my kids everything? What if someone told me I only had
3 years to love my wife and let her know that she is God’s unique creation?
What if someone told me I only had 3 years to love a congregation? Three years
is so short, and yet this was the amount of time Jesus was given to prepare the
disciples for a huge ministry. He was preparing them to bring the world back to
its true purpose. He was preparing them to help this broken world to know that
healing could only come through Him.

Sometimes
I find myself in an alternate cloud as I look around at this world. I get into
this fog where I just look at people as God’s creation. I look and think God
created that person in their uniqueness. They are all living their own stories,
making the best or the worst of every minute they have. Quickly, I can get overwhelmed
thinking about the time that is wasted by those who have no idea about what Holy
Week is or the true purpose of life. And I realize every minute counts.

Don’t
miss the moments this week to come to worship Jesus and hear about that
powerful Maundy Thursday where Jesus celebrated the Passover with His
disciples. There is a reason we do the Seder every year. We are looking again
into the story of Jesus in this incredible week. Don’t miss Good Friday and the
reflections of the deep scars Jesus has because of you and me. Don’t miss
Easter Sunday as we celebrate the gift of Jesus’ resurrection and ask what if
Jesus wasn’t on silent (like when we have our telephone ringer turned off).
Life can get busy, and before we know it our time is full of who knows what.
Jesus sent out His disciples to help people recapture the intended meaning of
life’s minutes, and now you and I have that same opportunity. It all starts
with this week we call Holy Week. Come and worship, and ask the Holy Spirit to
guide and direct every minute of your life to be Easter minutes—minutes that
speak that Jesus is your Savior.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Recently
my friends from Wisconsin were in town. We had a blast hanging out with them at
their hotel pool during spring break. Our kids had fun playing together. A
friendship that started with similarities during times of dating, engagement,
and weddings, has now progressed to similar stages of raising kids. Most of our
time together wasn’t one-on-one conversation; rather we were just parenting in
the same room and trying to sneak in a conversation here or there. There is
something that feels good about being with an old friend in a similar life
stage. The most profound thing that came out of their visit was that my buddy
introduced me to a show called The Carbonaro Effect. In this show, Michael
Carbonaro, a magician, does amazing tricks that shock people and catches it all
on hidden camera. One trick that stood out to me was called H2O To Go.
He mixed two packets of dust together, one he called hydrogen and the other he
called oxygen, and it made water. The people were so shocked.The looks on their faces were unbelievable. For
the most part, they bought into the trick and believed him. I mean, how could
they not when he did it right before their eyes?

Moments
like this stick out in life; when someone does something we never thought was
possible. Sometimes the situation is just our lack of knowledge or
understanding, for whatever reason we were unaware this could happen. But when the
situation is miraculous, meaning it is outside of the way our world naturally works,
it is life changing. These situations happen few and far between, but when they
do, they stand out.

In
this week’s lesson from John, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. There are so
many significant things to point out in this reading. We see the faith of
Martha and how she understands who Jesus is and what He can do. We see the human
side of Jesus, as he gets emotional at the loss of His friend. We see the
actual event of Lazarus’ resurrection. The most powerful reality showcased in this
event is that Jesus is God; it is undeniable. Our world often tries to
undermine Jesus and dispute the fact that He is God, but in this passage it is undeniable,
as only God can raise someone from the dead. Many of these points might make their
way into our conversations with others about life and faith, therefore we take
time to look at how this passage can help shape our future conversations.

My
dad had a strong faith. During the last five years of his life he was very
intentional in how he approached his relationships, creating opportunities to
share his faith. Since much of my step-family was unchurched (my dad’s wife’s
family), they became his personal mission field. My step-uncle was dating a
lady whose son was very sick. My dad poured hours of his time into this young
man, which meant that us kids spent hours at the hospital. Since I was only at
his house every other weekend, for me to remember the hours spent there meant that
I am only scratching the surface of how much time they actually gave this
family.

I
was in high school at this time and knew that I wanted to be a pastor, but I
was still a regular kid who loved playing basketball and wanted to have a
girlfriend. Instead, I was sitting in waiting rooms playing games with my
brothers and sisters. There were no cell phones so we were forced to come up
with our own methods of entertainment. While my dad and stepmom poured into
this young man and prayed for him, we waited and observed.

I also
remember that the day finally came when he was no longer sick. My family
experienced such joy! Through this my dad hoped that this family would come to
faith. I don’t think much came of their faith, but I will never really know for
sure. I can’t tell you why this boy was healed. I also can’t tell you why this
story is one I still remember since my dad has been gone for 15 years. I do
know this, in this experience I observed bad days, sin, suffering, and healing.

I
can’t tell you why one person suffers versus another, and I don’t try to figure
it out. All the theological training in the world will never fully make sense
of these situations. Rather than try to understand it, I merely hold onto the
truths that come from the Bible: there are bad days and suffering because of
sin, but Jesus is the ultimate healer. God created our bodies in the first
place, who better to heal them? I know to trust Jesus. He walked a path of suffering
so that one day I won’t have to suffer anymore, neither will you.

One
important lesson in this week’s reading is that the leaders of the time wanted
to figure out why and how Jesus could do the miracles He was doing. They wanted
to trap Him in their rules. In the end, they found themselves caught in their
own sin – thinking they had all the answers. We will never have all the answers
for bad days, sin, suffering, or healing. But, we can learn so much by watching
Jesus walk the path of suffering for us this Lenten season.

Sometimes
we can have a wilderness season on an annual basis. You know, that season where
you are just walking around looking for a drink of water and a minute to catch
your breath. I think the Lenten season can often be that way for my family. It
is in the middle of the school year, so Mindy can get worn down from teaching and
taking care of our kids. My kids can be restless wondering how much longer
until summer break. I am in the middle of Lent and feeling the pressure of two
sermons a week and thinking about how to make Holy Week great. We are just
trying to make it through. Sometimes complaining is easier than embracing the
reality of what we are going through.

Lately
I find more and more people who begin their discussion of Scripture by
criticizing the character(s) in the story. By no means do I think the people in
these stories are sinless, but I think our first reaction is to judge them too
quickly. If God wrote down my story in book to be used as an example, and
someone read those stories over and over again, I would not like it. I am
flawed, giving the readers plenty of mistakes to pick at with a fine-tooth comb.
Are we forgetting that the life stories of
people in the Bible are written to help us as we walk through similar
situations?

Learning
from their examples, and recognizing that the wilderness is something we can face,
is a blessing.

A
few weeks ago we talked about how Jesus addressed the downfalls of the
Israelites when he faced the devil and his temptations in the wilderness. This
weekend we will break from following the Gospel to look at the Israelites in
the wilderness and their grumbling during this tough season. Their hard lessons
are a blessing to us. As we grow in our faith, reflecting on the wilderness seasons
in our own lives, we see time and time again how Jesus is right there in the
midst of it with us.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

For
each of us there are things in life we don’t want to miss out on. When that
thing comes up, whether it be an event or a gathering or something else, we do
whatever it takes to go. If you have to miss it, sometimes the only way to stop
yourself from being bummed out is to not think about it or distract yourself
with something else. For those of you who are giving up something during Lent,
this may be the tactic you use. If you remove yourself from the thing you are
trying to avoid, you handle the loss better. By now, most of you know my
opinion on giving something up for Lent—I’d rather see you start a new habit
rather than give up something. But regardless, if your avoidance of a specific
item helps you focus on Jesus, then praise be to Jesus!

I
love live music. Sometimes I forget how much I love live music until I see it again
and realize how much I’ve missed it. At times the Grammy’s or the iHeart Music
Awards are enough to remind me how much I love it. Yet usually I get focused on
the many other things I have to do in life and forget all about it again.
Recently, John Mayer had tickets go on sale for his new tour. Sadly, the tour
was not coming through St. Louis, and the closest stops were Chicago and Kansas
City. I tried to forget about ticket sales starting and just remove the whole
thing from my mind, but that didn’t work. Instead I found myself texting a
friend who lives in Chicago to see if he wanted to go. It wasn’t going to work for him because his
baby is due close to the concert date. Next I texted my brother to see if he
wanted to go to the show in Kansas City, but he is going to a concert the night
before, so it wouldn’t work for him either. The day the tickets went on sale I
still attempted to get tickets even though I didn’t have anyone to go with yet.
I got pretty good seats on my first try, but gave them up thinking I could get
better ones. When I tried again, just in that short time, the available seats were
quite high in the venue, so I gave up and thought I can just buy the cheap
seats later if I decide to go. You can imagine my disappointment when the
concert sold out! John Mayer released another stop on the tour and I thought I
had second chance, but still no St. Louis dates. I tried to convince myself that
I am older now, and with kids around I can’t see him every time he has a tour,
but I would be lying if I didn’t admit how bummed I am that I will be missing
out.

Why
do I tell you all of this? Most of you probably don’t care about missing out on
John Mayer’s tour, but you care about missing out on something, and you know
that feeling when you really want to do something but just can’t. It bothers
you. And while you might try to ignore it, you find yourself looking for ways
to justify going, or trying to tell yourself that you don’t care, when deep
down you know you really do.

This
weekend in our text Nicodemus meets Jesus.During my reading and preparation, the Holy Spirit helped these words of
Jesus jump out at me, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of
God.” Nicodemus was a man who knew God, and he knew he did not want to miss out
on the kingdom of God. It mattered to him. It would be like missing out on a
John Mayer concert. Ok, it is way bigger than that, but you get my point.

Here’s
the sad part, in an unchurched culture, there are many people who just don’t
care about missing out on seeing the kingdom of God, or they have convinced
themselves that they will see heaven because they are “good enough.” If Jesus were
to say these same words (the ones above) to them, they would just say who cares,
or there isn’t a heaven anyway. We can’t even get to the point of talking to
them about baptism or anything else because they don’t think they are missing out
on anything. Nicodemus had a strong motivation not to miss out on the kingdom
of heaven. Here Jesus was talking to a person of faith, and therefore he had
something to build on. What stood out to me is that we may read passages and
have great enthusiasm to tell our friends and neighbors, but all that might be
lost on them if they are not in a place to know they are missing out.

So now
what? How do we help get them there? Unfortunately, I think if their families
did not lay a faith foundation, then they have to hit a rock bottom moment to
get there. Since we are born into sin we think we can handle things on our own,
and when we think that, we don’t see a need for God. There has to be a rock
bottom moment for us to get to the place to realize we need Jesus. And the only
way we can help them is to be there when they hit that rock bottom moment. For
our relationship, it means we have to be intentionally in their lives, so they
know they can count on us when those rock bottom moments happen. This Lenten
season I pray that you discover the people who you are talking with that may not
be worried about missing out on heaven, as well as look for ways to introduce
conversations of faith in your intentional relationships.

This
weekend is CCLS Sunday. Christian day school provides another avenue to help
families “get there” because the Christian faith is introduced at school. Since
CCLS continues to strive for excellence, it attracts Christian and
non-Christian families alike. This allows the children to see why not entering
the kingdom of God would be so sad, and therefore starts conversations with
families who may have never cared about this before. This is just one of the
reasons our partnership with CCLS is so important and why we take time to
celebrate it.

Sometimes there are conversations and
posts on social media where I really, really want to leave a comment and give
someone another perspective that they can’t see for whatever reason. There are
times I want to help people understand why they shouldn’t post this or that. I
recently had someone inquire of me about how to respond to people who were
posting a lot of negative stuff about Scripture. I have to admit, it is so
tempting to publicly challenge these people, but quickly I am drawn back to
Matthew 18 where Jesus clarifies that it is best to start one-on-one if we have
an issue with a brother. Thankfully God’s Word brings me back in line. As I
think about the times I get so frustrated at humanity and just want to write a
bunch of responses to posts, I can truly understand why people get off Facebook
altogether.

This is temptation 101, and Jesus laid
the foundation for us on how to handle it. There is something specific about
the temptations Jesus faced…they were specific to Him. They were designed to
knock Him off track, and they were right in His weak spot. Now, with Jesus
there is no weak spot, so the easiest way to show this is to show the human
issue of hunger. After fasting for 40 days, Jesus would have been hungry, and
we can all understand that. The other temptations are big boy stuff – the devil
and Jesus are debating about protection and ownership of the world. Those are specific
issues Jesus was facing.

It is hard to translate some of this into
our context since most of us probably don’t fast, and I have no temptation to
throw myself off a building and challenge God, nor am I tempted to start devil
worshiping anytime soon. Yet, I am tempted to respond to those who write things
on Facebook. Pastors are not immune to temptations. Some of my pastor Facebook
friends are writing things about one another. At times I even feel the devil whispering
in my ear to write a specific comment or line, but then Matthew 18 draws me
back. (I use the term Facebook friends lightly, as there are lot of people who
I am connected with via Facebook who may not truly be my friends.)

My memorization is image based. I have
images of paragraphs and stories in my head as I am preparing for a sermon I am
going to give. I memorize Scripture in the same way. I memorize the book and
chapter, sometimes the verse numbers, but the actual wording is conceptual for
me. I know Matthew 18 talks about going to your brother one-on-one, then bringing
together two or three, and then including the larger body like the church. If I
publicly react out of frustration to a Facebook post, I have just skipped the
first two parts of Matthew 18 and jumped right into the last part about the larger
body.

In this Lenten season my prayer is that we
each take our habits, as they are linked to our personal discipleship, to a new
level. The temptation of Jesus is a reminder that the devil is going to attack
our weakest areas all the time, and
those attacks are specific for each person. Our awareness of this allows the
Holy Spirit to do the work He is trying to do in us also – to refine us. In our
discipleship model, Read 1 – reading God’s Word daily – helps us grow and see
Jesus in the midst of our lives. The Holy Spirit then can prompt us back to a Scripture
passage in the midst of that temptation. Jesus laid the perfect example for us on
how this happens as we read about His temptation. This is an ideal way to begin
this season of reflecting on Jesus’ journey to the cross as we reflect on His
example for us to follow in our lives.

Audrey
is in that new phase of investigating absolutely everything. Early on as a
parent this phase annoyed me because I was constantly redirecting Jacob or
Gavin not to get into something. But with Audrey, I am acknowledging how her
mind is growing and changing every day, and it is intriguing to me the things she
finds intriguing. Audrey is fascinated with the shower. You cannot leave the
shower door open, even for a minute, or she will join you in the shower. Maybe
it isn’t that shocking because who doesn’t love a warm shower, but the girl is
drawn to it. Even after the water is off she will hang out in there for a few
minutes before she crawls back out. Audrey is also fascinated with the
dishwasher. I take this as a good sign because hopefully she will be the child
most ready to help with chores. My question though is why, in her little mind, does
she want to be in the middle of these specific things?

God
begins us all as infants, with the same lack of knowledge that grows as we
grow. Our world realizes knowledge is power, and has built a very profitable schooling
system based on that premise. Maybe too profitable, since young people are accumulating
so much student debt. Nevertheless we know knowledge is important. You can
always learn more, but you can only learn so much so quickly. I was reading
something the other day that said successful people keep reading and learning
every day. There is always something more to learn, and the older I get I
treasure those eye-opening, learning moments. When you learn something new, it
changes your perspective on life.

One
of the hardest things for me to understand is how an atheist thinks that they
have gained enough knowledge in life to be sure that there isn’t a God. Many
different people have tried to set out to disprove God, but the more knowledge
they gained the harder it was to deny. But like anything in life, we can stop
learning and choose to believe what we want to believe. There is just something
that draws us to the idea of “a complete knowledge,” however if humans begin
like Audrey, then who can know it all? At a recent conference I attended, it
was said that when asked this question, “If you could have lunch with any
person (past or present) who would it be?” that the majority of people would
answer Jesus. This answer is from Christians and non-Christians alike. The
speaker continued to say, “Who else would you say? Mother Theresa? Well, she is
connected to Jesus. Gandhi? Well, he had ties to Jesus in some ways too.” So,
imagine if you were the lucky one able to walk with Jesus and gain knowledge
from Him. Now imagine the impact of walking with Jesus would have on a teenage
boy.

The
Mount of Transfiguration is a key moment where Jesus allows His disciples to
grasp a piece of the knowledge of God. They are looking at Moses and Elijah and
are just beginning to understand how big their God is. For those young men, their
knowledge is expanding in ways they never thought possible. Our sinful nature
will make us think, like Adam and Eve, that we can understand the knowledge of
God, but the Mount of Transfiguration shows us the reality – that we can only
have a glimpse of what God sees and knows. This weekend we will spend time
looking at how this moment in history exemplifies how great Jesus is, and how
our knowledge and God’s knowledge is so much different.

Abby
has fallen into the routine of sleeping in the same room with her brothers.
There was a short stint of unknown fear, which led to this arrangement. We will
occasionally say, “Abby, when are you not going to sleep in the same room with
your brothers?” Abby will reply, “Let’s not talk about that.” Out of a
four-year-old comes such deep and adult like thinking; oh excuse me, a 4-and-a-half-year-old
(if Abby heard me she would correct me).

Anger,
lust, divorce, and oaths, as in our lesson for this week from Matthew 5, are just
what any preacher wants to talk about. I am sure Pastor Z is thankful this is
the text he gets to preach on while I am gone. No matter how much we trust or
look up to a leader, nobody loves everything
he or she says.There are plenty of
things that rub us the wrong way. In this case, with the leader being Jesus, and
Jesus being perfect, it means that He is going to challenge us where we need to
be challenged.

With
the child-like faith of my youth, I questioned whether stepping on an ant was
murder. As an adult, I often fly by such worries because I have so many more
important things to worry about. Continuing with Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He
brings us back to understand these laws the way they were intended. Murder is
not just murder, but also includes anger that burns within someone. Lust is not
just committing the act, but also just thinking about it. Divorce devastates a
family no matter the sins that precede it. And finally, in our sinful world,
one’s word is seen as not strong enough to trust, and so we think we have to
add things to it to make it stronger. Jesus says not so.

God,
as our leader, is constantly shaping us. And while the cultural norms allow
anger, lust, divorce, and oaths to thrive, Jesus calls us to truly understand
what He wants for His people. He came to give grace to all people so that we can
be what we spoke about last week—a unique spice to this earth & light to
the world. Could we do this on our own? No way, no how.That is why He gives us His grace as a gift.

Then
comes the next step, the Holy Spirit working on us each of us, challenging us
where we need to be challenged. For some of us He may challenge our anger. For
others it may be the way we use our tongue. Perhaps it is our giving, or better
said, our lack of giving. The Holy Spirit is restoring what was intended by the
law, which somehow got interpreted softly along the way.

Challenges
and changes we need to make are always hard to hear at first. But, each time I
am reminded of an area I need to work on, I am also reminded of the grace of
God. Jesus lived perfectly, and He gave me grace because He knew I could not do
it without Him. My selfish ways want to pretend like I can do everything
perfectly, but thanks be to Jesus I am not left in despair, because I do not do
everything perfectly. The laws come from a God who brings hope to the hopeless
(as we talked about just two weeks ago) and made us all unique to be the
spice/salt of life (as we talked about last week). “God is Love” (1 John 4:8)
is one of my favorite passages in Scripture. His grace restores us, and then He
fine-tunes us to be His extraordinary servants. So often we face the tough
challenge of seeing things differently than what the world may accept. But unlike
the world, we have a peace and joy they cannot explain, and that is worth every
challenge that comes our way.

A
few years ago Jacob got to be principal for the day. He was so excited. He wore
a tie to school and got to visit each Word of Life campus. He ate lunch with
the current principal, and got to play with all the kids. I drove up that day
to find my little principal in the middle of recess playing a game with a bunch
of older kids.Later I saw pictures of
him playing with the preschool kids. For his final act as principal, he
declared a free dress down day. Jacob’s innocence was undeniable. He had no
clue what “power” was given to him for that day. My son is not perfect, but at
least his understanding of power and leadership is pretty pure. Now granted, he
is too young to understand the adult world.

Over
the next several weeks, we will take time to look at Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
We started last week as we looked at the Beatitudes. This is an impromptu
series – “Changing the Norms.” No matter how hard we try to avoid these norms,
they sneak up on us like a bad habit. Before we know it, we have accepted
something we assume is the way things are, without any questions.

I am
going to take this unique opportunity to show how the words of Jesus are
relevant to us today. In fact, Jesus’ words have become even more relevant
since our world is so focused on leadership right now. Again, I am not
concerned where you fall on the spectrum, because all human leadership is
flawed. This is one reason why God truly never wanted the children of Isreal to
have a king. He knew an earthly king would always disappoint them. You can read
all about that in 1 Samuel 8. But, the people were persistent and they begged
God. While we cannot turn our eyes from the actions happening by our country’s leadership,
let’s take this unique opportunity to look at the Sermon on the Mount with
fresh eyes, eyes focused on the leaders, and our leader – Jesus.

Jesus
had a unique way of changing the cultural norms. He was looking at the commonly
accepted principles of the day and helping to guide people to a new
perspective. That new perspective was so shocking that it was hard to hear at
times. Jesus was helping to form people into what God intended them to be. A
few weeks ago we said this formation starts with repentance, and then last week
we said the next step was hope for the hopeless. Over the next few weeks we’ll
cover another step – sanctification. The Pharisees had interpreted the law in a
certain way, but Jesus was speaking with absolutely certainty the way the law
was intended, and giving the people a new way to live. This was not always well
received by the current leaders of the church, but God’s ways are not our ways.
Jesus showed the people God’s intention for their relationship with Him, and
with the Holy Spirit. After hearing Jesus, the people were ready to act. This
week we hear about Salt and Light, a hopeless people hearing God speak that they
are the key to the future of the city. Jesus spoke with authority, and He is
still that authority today, no matter what norms are sneaking up on us.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

I
have been around speeches my whole life. In sixth grade my class had a
competition to see who gave the best speech. I didn’t get to participate with
the rest of the class because I had to go to Florida for my grandpa’s funeral, but
I gave my speech when I got back. I ended up in the final running for who would
be in the speech competition. Thus began my journey of public speaking. In Seminary
I began to define my speaking further, as soon I would be doing a lot of
preaching. Sure, I would be asked to speak other places as well, but preaching
was going to be my primary mode of public speaking. I have had the blessing of
working with great pastors who speak & preach very well. I have watched
their gifts and uniqueness’. At times I have been tempted to critique those who
are speaking, but as I have matured, I am able to just appreciate public
speaking for what it is.

Weddings
are one of those places where we see public speaking by people who are usually
not used to doing it. Most of the time, the pastor leading the ceremony has a
good handle on things, but at the reception things get a little nuts. I have
story after story of speeches that I remember, mostly because of their oddness
combined with nervousness. I have very few that are memorable because of the
great delivery and preparation.

This
past Saturday, Mindy and I attended the wedding of a shy couple. Everyone knows
they are shy, and knowing this about themselves, the couple limited the number
of guests they invited. Not surprisingly, many of those around them are shy too.
Because of his shyness, the best man had his wife read his speech. When it came
time for the man of honor (a male “maid of honor”) to do his speech, we had no
clue what was coming.

Let
me tell you a little of the backstory so you get a deeper appreciation of what
I mean. The man of honor was the bride’s brother. A few weeks before the
wedding he had a stroke. He is a young guy, so a stroke was very unexpected. For
awhile He couldn’t talk, and there were questions about whether he was even going
to be able to attend the wedding. He went through physical therapy and,
thankfully, he was able to attend. When he got up to speak, there were
questions about how challenging this would be for him. The room grew silent,
and he laid out a heartfelt tearjerker! He transported the audience back to his
childhood and that of his sister, where he would ask her, “Do you want to talk,
listen, or just go to sleep?” He told everyone about the secret language the
two of them share, which only they know. He went on to say that his sister was “his
person,” and he doesn’t have many people in this world. My eyes welled up listening
to the heartfelt connection he was communicating. I could see how deep this
relationship was, and being a relational guy, I was caught up in his words. The
delivery didn’t matter. As I listened, I wondered how he was going to connect
this to the groom, who was hearing the story of a brother and sister and their
deep relationship. But before I could think too long about it, he flawlessly
spoke about how great the groom was, how thrilled he was to watch the
relationship between him and his sister develop, and how happy he was for his
sister that she had found “her person” to be with forever.

In those
few minutes, every wedding speech I had ever heard was trumped. Mindy and I
made sure to tell him how great his words were. I, knowing that public speaking
is challenging for many people, wanted him to leave that night knowing he had
done a magnificent job. He had no clue who I was or that I preach every week,
but I didn’t care. I just wanted to be the unknown in the crowd who told him
his words were powerful.

No
matter how technological we become as a generation, technology will never take
away from public speaking. The words of a person can immediately transport us
into a different place, thought, or emotion. They also can leave us desperate
or bored. When you speak publicly often, you know that you can fall into any
one of these categories, if not all of them, even in the same speech! That is
why it is so scary for people to do. Some would rather die than to speak
publicly.

I
can’t imagine what it was like to hear Jesus speaking for the first time. Those
that understood the words He was saying understood the power of proclamation.
Jesus was the only person able to fulfill everything He said, while at the same
time fully meaning every word that came out of His mouth. The Scripture lesson
for today is called the Beatitudes. It is often hard to explain to people. The
words are a powerful proclamation of what Jesus came to do. At first you might
think He is talking to specific groups, but He is really talking to all groups. Jesus was proclaiming to us
a promise to fill the hole of emptiness we feel in our lives. We take time today
to look at this powerful speech from Jesus, given to people that needed to hear
words of promise. Nothing has changed for us today, as we hear God’s Word for
us as well.